"Wow. Good. Great. Nice."
Those were the only words that Kane could utter after a humiliating defeat against the final Boss of the Wallace Tower.
He spent 20 days climbing that Tower, got kicked from his own apartment, and got beaten up by people wielding wooden swords only to get his character killed in one hit. Who wouldn't be dumbfounded in that situation?
Kane removed his VR set, showing his pitiful eyes that were covered with eye bags.
'I'm done with this shit.'
Kane placed his VR set back in his bag. He stood up and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. After a few seconds, he went out and straightened out the bedsheets that Jae Hwan gave him on the ground. Kane lay down and closed his eyes.
'I better stop this madness. I guess I really have no future in that game.'
BAM!
Kane rose from his slumber as Jae Hwan slammed the sliding door open.
"Wazzup, did you eat dinner?"
"Dinner. Leave me alone. I'm trying to sleep."
"Come here!"
"No… no… no…"
Kane wanted to sleep, but he was too tired to resist. Jae Hwan pulled Kane's hands and mercilessly dragged the helpless Kane on the ground up to their two-story mansion. Jae Hwan lifted him and tossed him to the chair with Jae Hwan's parents across the table. His mother worriedly looked at the exhausted Kane.
"What's wrong with him? Is he finally dying?"
"Me? No, I just needed sleep."
Jae Hwan sat beside Kane, across his father.
"He did die. I heard him before coming in. Apparently, he died stupidly in the game."
"Shut up! You don't even know what happ—mmmmm!"
The old lady unexpectedly shoved a spoonful of food on Kane's mouth. She also took a bowl of meat soup and placed it in front of Kane. Kane usually loathed this treatment because of how horrible the food was, but he was just too disappointed with his death… eh, I mean tired.
Kane quietly took the spoon and took a sip. His eyes suddenly widened as it actually tasted good and wasn't shit.
'Holy shit.'
Jae Hwan noticed him.
"Was it good?"
"I won't lie. It is. Far better than your shitty men—"
SMACK!
"Ow! Ow! Ow!"
Jae Hwan's mother smacked him before he could even comment on their food that Kane has been eating.
"You're still ungrateful, you little shit."
"I just don't understand! Auntie, you can cook just fine like this. Why can't you just cook like that for the success of your fucking shop?!"
"I didn't cook that?"
"Huh? Then where did this come from?"
Jae Hwan replied while chewing his food.
"My sister brought that?"
"Your sister? Ah, that woman whose name I don't even know and face that I've only seen once despite also living in this house!"
The three of them chuckled as no one actually introduced themselves except for Jae Hwan. Jae Hwan's mother asked.
"Why are you only asking for her? Did you know our names?"
"Yeah, I'm the one receiving your mails. You're Miss Park Sun Mi, Sir Jae Joon, and that other part-time guy was Erick. And then that ice-cold princess whose name I didn't know."
Jae Hwan answered.
"Jung Yeonwoo."
"Yeonwoo?"
"Yeah, that's our lady. Pretty name, right? You seemed in love with her at first sight."
"Nope. Everyone will be curious if you're living under the same house, and yet you didn't know her never and rarely saw her."
"Well, suit yourself. But you can't say that to her. She's your Boss, though."
"B-Boss? Miss Sun Mi, you're not the Boss?"
Sun Mi gleefully shook her head.
"She owned this huge house, that restaurant over there and so on. Her family was even far richer than this before since their grandfather was a war hero. Apparently, even their father joined Arcanos."
Kane's eyes widened upon hearing that there was something right in front of him working with Arcanos. He could finally get some insider tips that would help him reach the top of the leaderboards! Kane suddenly bowed his head at Jae Joon.
"Sir, I didn't know you're that kind of person! Allow me to pay my respects!"
"Pay your respects? You sound like your paying respects for my funeral. If you're doing this so that you'll get some Arcadian information from me, then you won't get anything. I'm not Yeonwoo's father."
Kane was confused. A lot was going on Kane's head. Was Yeonwoo born from Sun Mi's first husband? Then was Jae Hwan her half brother? Seeing that Kane was grinding his brain cells so hard, Jae Hwan finally explained.
"My mom's brother was her father. One day, Yeonwoo tracked and found us in the slums and took us in. She explained that she needed someone watching this mansion because her family fell apart when her influential father and prodigal older brother died. To at least help her pay the bills, we created the Chickenfighter while she was working in Arcanos."
"How did they die?"
"Stop worrying for her. She's not gonna give you any tips either, even if you married her. People from Arcanos were banned from saying any inside information, and their employees were not even allowed to play the game."
"You're annoying. I'm not gonna marry her! Do you say that to every guy that you see?"
"Yes, I do. I tell this to all the guys I know, even with Erick! I want my sister to be happy! Obviously, she's been lonely because she had to work 24/7."
Kane got a little bit disappointed.
'This little fucker. I thought I was special since he's trying to hook me up with her.'
Because of all that bickering, Kane totally forgot about his character's stupid death and managed to sleep peacefully. Kane woke up, worked, and trained just fine like nothing happened. At 8 pm, as soon as they closed the shop, Kane went back to Arcadia.
Because he died, Kane spawned in MIRANDA SQUARE with only his default pants on. People started looking at him again.
'Right, right. I'm used to this now.'
Kane walked toward the merchant in front of him and sold almost everything in his inventory box. Since he had no idea how crafting worked in Arcadia, all the crafting ingredients that Xvin traded to him had no use. He sold everything except for the Galaxion Gunner.
[Gold: 3200]
'With this Gold, I can now go back to Herald City and play the game properly. But if I do that, I might forget everything that I learned in Wallace Tower. Let's just do what we need to do for now.'
Kane looked around and bought everything that he could buy with his money. He bought potions, scrolls, armors, weapons, and even books, which could help him gain information about Axel Tower.
[Gold: 0]
'Now, I'm definitely stuck on this Kingdom again.'
But Kane was hopeful this time. He went inside a tavern and looked into the books that he bought. Kane tried to find a map of MIRANDA KINGDOM and found it in a book.
*Beep*
[Do you want to this map to be recorded – YES or NO]
'Ummm, of course, yes!'
[Map Recorded]
[Nethalion's eye level up]
[Nethalion's eye now level 2]
'Huh, what's going on? I didn't do anything at all. What's this skill again?'
[Passive Skill: Nethalion's Eye – LVL 2]
Allows that player to look into the world from the perspective of the great demon. The efficiency of this skill depends on the prior knowledge of a player.
[Cooldown: 50 Seconds]
[Nethalion's Eye updated your map.]
'My map?'
Kane opened his information box and saw the map of the Tavern that he was in. He zoomed out and saw that the map of Miranda Kingdom was already available. Still, the other places around the Kingdom were greyed out.
But Kane was surprised upon noticing other markings on the map, such as merchants, taverns, and even Jonas' house marked on his map. There were even names of the merchants and the items that could be bought from them. There were even places that Kane could click to see the monsters that could spawn in that place.
'Is that normal? I don't think Jonas' house would appear on other players.'
Kane zoomed in on the MIRANDA SQUARE to look for people. Unfortunately, only merchants were marked and not people. But on the Tavern that he was in, he saw that there were moving red circles.
'Hmmm, these looked like a minimap. Are these people?'
His suspicions were confirmed upon counting the number of circles. It was the same number as the number of people in the room.
Kane tried other experiments while he was heading toward Axel Tower. Kane learned that the circles were only appearing if they were right in front of his point of view. If they were behind him, the red dots would fade.
'Okay. So, these maps are updated in real-time. I can utilize this somehow.'
Seeing that he could finally achieve something alone, he took a deep breath before entering the massive doors of Axel Tower. After all this time, Kane has been carried by other players in his battles. This will be the first time he tried to raid without any help from other players. He grabbed the handle and pulled it.
[You need 100 STR to open this door.]
'Motherfucking shit! Bitch developers!! I was level 10!!'
And Kane's hopes and dreams went down to the drain. For a few minutes, Kane kept on mumbling, stomping, and cursing in front of the Tower. Kane could actually open the gates because he finally reached level 10 to increase his STR for 100 points. However, he died, that his stats were reverted back to level 8.
Kane looked around for solutions, but no monster could help him push the gates. Unlike other Towers located in the woods, Axel Tower was located inside the walls of the Kingdom.
To actually prepare for the run, Kane bought a few scrolls, such as a Dash Scroll.
Dash Scrolls could instantly push someone depending on the target's health. But it would push an encumbered person forward at least 5 meters.
[Dash Scroll Activated.]
Kane used it on himself to give him a boost to open the door.
SLAM!
"Ugh!"
But he only slammed on the door, and it didn't even move even an inch.
'The fuck? What am I supposed to do now? I don't have any more money to buy a ticket back to Herald City!'
"Oy, oy, oy!"
Kane's ranting came to a stop as a man in a reddish armor appeared. He was black-haired with some yellow highlights and was a little bit taller than Kane.
"Here, I thought I can test my skills alone, but I guess there's a dumbass here. What are you doing here?"
"You wanna piece of me?"
Kane suddenly raised his arms up and prepared to fight with the man.
"Hahaha! Are you serious? Based on your equipment, you're not even level 50. Didn't you know me?"
"I don't. Am I supposed to know someone who'll die by my hands?"
The man didn't say anything. Suddenly, Kane dashed forward and punched him in the face.
PAK!
But the man blocked Kane's punch with only a hand. Kane was about to step back and unleash another attack at the glaring man, but the man shifted his gaze and walked toward the door.
"I liked your balls. But I'll kill you next time. I'm here for something else. Plus, it won't be good for our Fame and Reputation to fight inside this Kingdom's walls."
The man opened the gates enough for Kane to enter.
"Come, newbie. Witness my power."
"Witness my ass."
In the end, Kane still managed to enter the Tower because of the efforts of another player.
"Since I don't think you know me because you're a newbie, my ID is Vulcan."
Kane looked above his head, but there was nothing.
"What? Why isn't there anything above your head?"
"Seeing that your name is still Kane250, I guess you didn't know you can change the name you can display. You're Kane250 by the system, but you still could create aliases to display on top of your head. There were other tricks that you will find out just like how you can hide your name just like mine."
"So, you're hiding your name. Why did you tell me? Is this the time you're gonna kill me?"
Vulcan glared back at Kane with an evil smile. Kane was a little bit scared, but he tried not to show it. Suddenly, a group of wolves swarmed at them. Kane immediately took out his sword in response.
The ground suddenly started shaking. Kane looked beside him and saw that the gigantic Knight statue started moving. It was Familiar that Xvin was saying. But something popped up on Kane.
[You cleared Axel Tower Floor 1]
Kane looked in front and saw the whole mob of monsters were already dead without even the Familiar doing anything. Vulcan was right in the middle of the room, covered with the blood of the monsters. Kane was flustered that he just shifted his gaze for a moment and BAM! Everyone was dead.
[Transfusion.]
Vulcan suddenly sucked all the blood from the dead monsters to his chest. The menacing man took a glare at the astonished Kane.
"Kid. If I want you dead, you'd be dead by now. Remember my name and my face. You'll see me on the news a few days from now."
'This guy! Did he just called me kid? He looks way younger than me! Wait till I get my chance to stab you in the back!'
Seeing that the guy was on a complete caliber, Kane became quiet and retained all of his rants on his head. Vulcan continued running to the next portal.
"Wait! Aren't you gonna kill that guy?"
Kane suddenly pointed at the Familiar.
[Blood Slicer!]
Vulcan swung his arm in the air, and a wave of blood was forced that sliced the statue into multiple pieces.
"That was a stupid question, but I realized I never tried it before. Those Familiars were supposed to help you. Why would you kill them? Dumbass."
Vulcan turned around and jumped inside the portal. Kane followed him while also taking a last glimpse at the destroyed Familiar.
'That Familiar was taken down in one shot. Are they that weak? Or this guy is just that powerful?'
As soon as Kane stepped on the next floor, another notification popped up.
[You cleared Axel Tower Floor 2]
Vulcan was already in the middle collecting all the blood of the fallen once again. Before Kane could say anything, Vulcan already jumped toward the next room.
Just like the other rooms, as soon as Kane entered, Vulcan already cleared the room. While he was sucking the blood out of the dead monsters, Kane started running toward the next room.
[You entered a new area - Axel Tower Floor 4]
As soon as Kane entered, he was welcomed by the sight of massive red bears eating a corpse. One of the bears ran toward him and clawed him.
SLASH!
Kane easily dodged it. He looked behind and saw that another bear was approaching him. But no matter how the bears tried to attack him, Kane could evade everything.
However, when Kane sliced the bear, nothing happened. Since minimum monsters that were said to be in Axel were around level 20, this was just as hard as the mud soldier that Kane killed. But even defeating that mud soldier was only possible for Kane because of Xvin's buff.
Suddenly, he sensed something was coming, fast. Kane crouched down in reflex.
WHISH!
Blood splattered on Kane's face as all the creatures in the room were sliced in half. As soon as their bodies dropped, their blood was getting sucked by walking Vulcan.
Seeing that, Kane immediately ran toward the next room.
'Shit, this guy is so fast for me to check things!'
As soon as Kane entered, he saw that the Familiar right in front of him was placed in the same position as the one on the 1st floor. Monkeys appeared and ran straight at Kane. The Familiar moved, raised its hammer, and then tried to slam it at the monkeys.
SLASH!
But before the Familiar hammered them, Vulcan already sliced all the monsters in half, including the Familiar. Vulcan looked beside him and observed that for this time, Kane didn't run toward the exit.
"Hey, are you tired?"
"No, I'm looking into something."
"If you're here to get any XP or loot, then don't bother, because you're not getting anything."
"Yeah, you do your own. I'm doing mine."
"I wonder what's the goal of someone as stupid as you."
"Let me ask this, did you know about these Familiars?"
"I don't think I'm obligated to answer that, but since you pique my curiosity, then I might as well answer that. They spawn every 5 floors in the same spot. So, what about it?"
"I'm gonna test something, let's go!"
"Hey! Fucker! I'm the one leading here!"
Vulcan and Kane stayed together until they managed to reach the 9th floor in less than five minutes. Before leaving for the portal, Kane stood in front of the portal and hurled his sword inside.
"What? Why did you do that? That doesn't work."
"We'll find out."
Kane and Vulcan entered the next room, which had many water puddles, and the Familiar was still stationed on the right side of the gate. Kane walked forward and saw that his sword went through like the Familiar wasn't blocking the way.
'That means this room is really empty until we stepped in.'
Vulcan approached him.
"Hey, I had enough. I gave you some information, I think I deserve an answer. What are you doing?"
"I'm not obligated to answer that."
Vulcan took a step back with a vengeful glare at his eyes.
'This motherfucker said what?'
Seeing that Vulcan was really offended, Kane stopped joking. Although he wasn't really kidding.
"I'm trying to find a way to exploit this tower."
"Why would you exploit this Tower? They aren't any good rewards. This is Tower is just for casual training. Don't waste your time."
Vulcan walked forward and stepped on the pedestal in the middle. The ground started shaking as a giant jelly suddenly came out of the water.
[Bozumin, the River Monster LVL 30]
HP: [?/?]
Kane took a step back to prepare.
[Blood Slicer.]
But Vulcan only swiped his hands, and the jelly crumbled to pieces.
'OMG? How powerful is this guy?'
Vulcan took a last look at Kane before turning around and walked toward the entrance gate.
"Well, good luck to your exploits, Kane."
"Where are you going? You're not done climbing. I thought this Tower is about 25 floors until it repeats the same room."
"I'm leaving. I'm just here to test my newly acquired skills. I don't wish to climb this Tower with shitty rewards."
"Lastly! How can I kill you?"
Vulcan suddenly stopped walking.
"Well, that's new. Dumb newbies and my fangirls would always say how they can be as strong as me, but no one actually asked me how to get myself get fucking killed. I'm not gonna tell you how did I become this strong. But let's meet each other again."
Vulcan eventually left. Kane was left without any loot or XP since Vulcan was the one who killed all of them. However, Vulcan left all of the mineable minerals in the rooms. Unfortunately, Kane can't go back to the lower floors and only mined the minerals on the 10th floor.
After mining, Kane examined the large unmoving Familiar. The Familiars would always automatically move to the nearest enemy available and would try to kill it.
Since the Axel Tower was too easy, Familiars rarely die on this Tower that the floors they were in were considered Free Floors. However, Boss Rooms, such as 20th and 25th, could kill the Familiar, leaving the player to finish the floor all by himself. Once a room was cleared, the Familiars would no longer move.
But Kane managed to confirm what Xvin told him about the world on the other side of the gates. If a person went to the other side of the room, that room would be instantly created, and monsters will immediately appear.
But if it's a non-living thing, such as Kane's sword, nothing will happen. The world on the other side of the gate won't be created unless Kane or another person will enter.
Luckily, Kane managed to get some high-quality rare ores because it was from a Boss room.
Now for the next phase of his experiment, he took out a book about Familiars. He found out that the Familiars were formerly the generals of King Axel. Before his death, he created these Familiars in the image of his generals. Apparently, he made the from a mineral called Clayborne. Familiars are tasked to protect Axel's Tower and his challengers.
'King Valian, King Jacob, King Wallace, King Arthur, and King Axel. They were all real. But no one has ever seen Axel. I'm pretty sure he's hiding somewhere inside this Tower. There's definitely a top.'
Kane glared at the Familiar to test his abilities.
[Nethalion's Eye activated]
[Clayborne Familiar LVL 50]
Description: A familiar that was made by King Axel in the image of his loyal generals.
Nethalion's Eye Description: Materials made from Clayborne were weak against Ice, Water, and Frost. They were also prone to slipping if it collided against solid Ice.
Kane's eyes widened as he realized something.
'Mamamia! This is the real deal!'
Quickly, he left the Tower and went back to the plaza. Kane sold all of the ores that he got. Due to desperation, Kane actually sold everything, including his very own equipment, except for the Galaxion Gunner.
After that, he bought a single Attack Scroll, which had the same effect as Xvin's skill. He spent the rest of his money on Dash Scrolls, Ice Scrolls, and Lesser Goblin Scrolls.
[Dash Scrolls]
Pushes the target for a certain distance forward. The more the target's current weight exceeds the caster's weight limit, the less the distance traveled will be.
[Attack Scroll]
Increases the targets attack damage by 50%. It does not stack with other attack scrolls.
Duration: 60 seconds
[Ice Scrolls]
Unleashes an ice blast at a targeted location. Has a small chance to freeze targets.
Damage: 200 Magical Damage
[Lesser Goblin Scroll]
Summons a lesser goblin that will attack everyone in the area except for goblins.
Kane bought over a hundred of them, amounting to around 10,000 golds after selling his decent equipment. Now he looked like a total naked idiot, wearing only his overused leather underwear.
"Look at this player, is he trolling?"
"OMG, did he just sold all of his items? And bought some scrolls."
"What a dumbass, why bother selling your items for some scrolls. Obviously a newbie."
But Kane ignored them and walked away proudly with only his shorts as he knew he'll achieve glory. One day.
Scrolls work the same way as skills works. If it was a fireball scroll, it would also summon a fireball the same way as the skill fireball does. However, the strength depends on the person who created the scroll. The more powerful the scroll was, the more expensive it is.
Only a few people would buy scrolls since they were expensive. Why bother buying a costly item that you could only use once, when you could just learn that same skill in that scroll instead, and you could use them forever. But Kane, who had no skills at all, scrolls were valuable.
Kane went back up to Axel Tower, sat on the floor beside the door, and waited. Finally, after waiting for 6 hours, a group of Paragons arrived. Kane gleefully welcomed them.
"Hey, guys! Are you planning to raid?"
"Fuck off. We're not asking for help."
"Yes, I'm just here to do something."
"Come on, let's go, he's a troller. He might get our loot."
The group quickly opened the gate and ran inside, in which Kane quickly followed. With that, the 100 STR problem was easily solved. One of them stopped near the entrance and faced Kane.
"Stop moving, or I'll kill you."
"Okay, fine."
Kane sat down on the floor and pretended to meditate like a guru. Don't let yourself get fooled. He was not doing anything important. The rest of the group and the Familiar started killing the monsters for a few minutes until they cleared the room. They also mined everything, but Kane was still not moving.
All of them found it weird as Kane literally didn't move. They took all the XP and resources, and he didn't budge. They took a last weird glare at Kane before leaving to the next room.
"What's with that guy?"
"Yeah, he's weird as hell."
"The fuck is he staring at us? Why did he come with us, anyway?"
Even after they left, Kane didn't stand up. He waited for two more hours to make sure he won't run into that group before finally standing up and walked toward the next gate.
"Now, let's get that one step closer to Moonwrath armor."
In video games, hacks, bugs, glitches, and exploits were rampant. These occurred when someone managed to find an error in the game. However, these were always getting fixed quickly as a lot of people were doing it. Therefore, a lot of people were also reporting it.
Arcanos always resolved these things quickly. Usually, they'll also penalize or even ban the players who abused the bug. But that's not always the case.
Unlike other bugs and glitches that came from an error within the game, some exploits were legitimate products of the game. These occurred when someone managed to find a way to manipulate a legit and existing feature in a game that the developers themselves failed to look into.
This way, the players themselves managed to walk away freely without anyone knowing about what happened. And for low-leveled guys like Kane, this was his only way of survival. Since the game already made a mistake by not giving him a proper Story Quest, Kane had to find other ways to progress in Arcadia.
Kane approached the door to the 2nd floor. He turned around and faced the unmoving familiar. Out of the scrolls that Kane bought, the Attack Scroll was the most expensive. That's why he only bought one of them.
The cheapest and the most abundant stock of them was the Lesser Goblin Scroll, as it only summons a very weak level 1 goblin. It was totally a useless scroll. But not for Kane.
[Lesser Goblin Scroll.]
A red portal appeared upon throwing the goblin scroll in front of him. A goblin appeared and attacked Kane. But Kane quickly grabbed it on its hands with a smile on his face, as it was the first time after a long time that he could overpower a monster like this.
'I really miss fighting with level 1. I wanna go back to Herald City again.'
Kane tossed the small goblin back to the ground. It stood up and tried to pounce at Kane once again.
SQUASH!
But it was eventually crushed by the Familiar. Since it was a monster and a threat to the player, the Familiar automatically moved and approached Kane and the goblin.
[Ice Scroll.]
Kane aimed the ice scroll at the bottom shoes of the Familiar. The floor got frozen in Ice along with the Familiar's shoes. Kane approached its legs to check if it was welded to the ground, but it's not.
By using the goblin, Kane managed to pull the familiar directly in front and facing the gate. Kane took a step back and aimed his next scroll at the Familiar.
[Dash Scroll.]
Kane's mouth dropped open as upon activation, the Familiar was pushed toward the gate.
'Holy shit!'
Kane elatedly entered the next room.
[You entered Axel Tower Floor 2]
As soon as Kane entered, the Familiar that he pushed was also right in front of him. Since it's been hours since the raiding party cleared floor 2, the room has been restarted to its default state. The level 20 wolves appeared and ran towards Kane.
Kane just crossed his arms like a Boss while the wolves were running toward him.
SLAM!
Suddenly, all of them were swept away by the giant familiar.
[You have slain Armored Rabid Wolf]
[You have slain Armored Rabid Wolf]
[You have slain Armored Rabid Wolf]
[You have slain Armored Rabid Wolf]
[Level up!]